Juliette Rémond Tiedrez (Legal Researcher – International Commission of Jurists)
The views expressed in this post are the author’s alone and do not represent any institutional position. The views expressed in this interview are the author’s own and do not necessarily reflect Every Casualty Count’s stance.
On 17 September 2024, the United Nations’ (UN) Investigative Team to Promote Accountability for Crimes Committed by Da’esh (UNITAD or the Investigative Team) concluded its mandate. One of the Investigative Team’s key technical assistance projects was to build the capacity of the Iraqi authorities to conduct “forensic work in line with international standards, supporting the return of remains to families”.
According to international human rights law, reparations include the search for, exhumation, identification and return of the disappeared’s remains to their loved ones for reburial. This process is a crucial satisfaction measure for the loved ones as it can provide them with closure so they can “begin to grieve and to heal”, and it allows them to bury the missing according to their cultural practices. It is also a satisfaction measure for the disappeared person as it restores their dignity.
The obligation to search, exhume, identify, and return the remains falls on States. Iraq passed the Yazidi [Women] Survivors Law on 15 March 2021, mandating the Mass Graves Directorate “to continue all procedures in searching for, investigating, and opening mass graves, unveiling the identity and returning the remains to their families to bury them in a proper way”. However, Iraq has been unable to implement the law on its own because of the costs, the not easily accessible technology for exhumation and identification of remains, and a lack of training. Due to this lack of capacity and in line with the international community’s increasing role in supporting the search for, exhumation, identification and return of remains, UNITAD started assisting Iraq’s Mass Graves Directorate and Medico-Legal Directorate.
The Investigative Team was established in 2017 by a Security Council resolution to “support domestic efforts to hold ISIL [the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant] (Da’esh) accountable”. According to its Terms of Reference, UNITAD was tasked with collecting, preserving and storing evidence, including by “acquiring forensic material”. The mandate was thus an accountability mandate, focusing on building criminal cases rather than on reparations for victims and survivors such as the search for, exhumation, identification and return of remains. However, in practice, the Investigative Team did help the Iraqi authorities in providing reparations to victims.
In March 2019, UNITAD started collecting forensic, physical and biological material from mass grave sites, noting that such evidence was particularly important for their investigation into crimes under international law. In line with international standards, the Investigative Team conducted excavations in consultation with affected communities, victims and survivors. For instance, when excavating mass grave sites in the village of Kocho, where ISIL murdered an undetermined number of Yazidi men and older boys on 3 August 2014, a religious ceremony which respected Yazidi rituals was held before the exhumations.
Remains were then sent for identification to the Medico-Legal Directorate, with the support of the Investigative Team. Once remains were identified, death certificates were issued and remains were returned to victims’ loved ones. Again, the Investigative Team conducted the return of remains in consultation with affected communities, victims and survivors. The first 103 remains of Yazidi victims murdered in Kocho, for example, were reburied according to Yazidi customs and following commemorative ceremonies.
UNITAD’s victim-centred approach to the collection of evidence is welcome. The Investigative Team did not only see its role as an accountability mandate but also supported the State of Iraq, when possible, in granting reparations measures to victims and survivors such as commemorations and the search for, exhumation, identification and return of remains. In the past, international accountability bodies had not always been so considerate of the victims and survivor’s rights. The International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY), for instance, had reburied the remains of victims without identifying markers, after having conducted exhumations for evidentiary purposes only. The United Nations Interim Administration Mission in Kosovo (UNMIK) and the International Commission on Missing Persons (ICMP) later had to re-exhume the remains for identification, as reparation measures to victims and survivors.
In total, UNITAD and the Mass Graves Directorate excavated 68 mass graves and recovered more than 900 bodies since the process started in March 2019. The latest excavation before closure was that of a particularly precarious mass grave site in Bir Alou Antar, near Tel Afar, as it was located in a sinkhole. It contained the remains of Yazidi and Shia victims. The Investigative Team supported and built the capacity of the Iraqi authorities with approximately 2.4 million USD in equipment and training relating to the excavation of mass graves. Such equipment and training included: the provision of advanced analytical equipment, digital forensic laboratories, and specialized tools, equipment and consumables for the documentation and analysis of mass graves and other forensic evidence. Digital forensic laboratories were established at four Iraqi criminal courts.
UNITAD immensely contributed to the search for, exhumation, identification, and return of remains of victims of crimes committed by ISIL, helping with the recording, identification and public acknowledgement of ISIL’s casualties. However, it was never meant to be a permanent body, and its mandate to build the capacity of the Iraqi authorities was intended to allow Iraq to continue to work on accountability for ISIL’s crimes on its own. Nonetheless, before its closure, the Investigative Team noted that its work had not been completed and that “support from the international community will remain critical going forward”.
According to a count by Yazda, a Yazidi-led non-governmental organisation, around ten mass graves of Yazidis remain to be excavated and other sites continue to be found as Yazidis return to live where the crimes were committed. Out of the 900 recovered bodies, most still need to be identified and returned to their loved ones. Victims and survivors have expressed concerns about the Mass Graves Directorate and the Medico-Legal Directorate’s lack of staff and resources, fearing that they will not be able to take on exhumations and identifications without UNITAD’s support. The Iraqi government itself “recognised that it did not have enough resources, including financial, for exhumations. The end of UNITAD’s mandate should therefore not mean an end to the international community, including the United Nations’ support, as the search for, exhumation, identification and return of the disappeared to their loved ones for reburial, as a human right, should still be respected and implemented.
Juliette Rémond Tiedrez is a Legal Researcher at the International Commission of Jurists’ Middle East and North Africa programme. She contributed to Yazda and the Free Yazidi Foundation’s work as a pro bono legal consultant and translator.
